I-COM's Top 10 Blog Posts of 2011

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So what were our most read blog posts of 2011?

1. What is a brand according to Google? The first of three posts written by the illustrious Gofton. Posts that discuss the way Google works always pull in the crowds, plus this is genuinely useful information for businesses.
2. Developers, more than meets the eye After much cajoling, our development team have written a few blog posts this year and it's really paid off traffic-wise. This post takes a peek behind the curtain of this ever-mysterious profession.
3. The adaptive webTechnical data is always going to have an audience, and once again this is useful info about how to ensure your website adapts in response to data-gathering.
4. Google is dead in the water if the content doesn't improve Google+ was big news in 2011, and that's reflected in the success of this second post by Mindy. However, she's keen to stress that this really isn't another post about the potential of Google+ for marketers blah blah blah; rather it takes a long, hard and realistic look at the future of the platform.
5. How do I get the best out of a web developer? Another post by the I-COM development team that's interesting for developers, because they see themselves in it, and for clients because they want to understand how to treat their developers.
6. SEO and apostrophes part 2, the SEO perspective The debate about apostrophes still rages in the I-COM office, but in the rankings the SEO side of the argument won out (but only because it had SEO in the title).
7. Ardwick pitches peppered with genius as I-COM athletes dazzle Graham Allchurch's masterfully written match report was popular within I-COM and, apparently, without. It's an entertaining read and it's about football, so it couldn't avoid getting a few reads.
8. Establishing trust on an e-commerce website This blog post piggy-backed a news story, but in an engaging way - it added something to the conversation rather than just repeating what everyone else was saying.
9. I Love Manchester: love the idea, hate the realisation Once again, this post drew in traffic thanks to a newsworthy topic, however it expressed an alternative point of view and called for readers to interact with I-COM.
10. SEO and apostrophes, a copywriter's tale And finally, the other side of the argument. Grammar is a contentious subject, which is probably the reason it's featured prominently in two of our top ten posts (just realised this one has SEO in the title too...)

Honourable mentions

Although it wasn't published this year, Top ten funny grammatical errors (and why they're not so funny for your business) is still the most popular post of all time, and received more views than any other page on the blog in 2011 (more than the homepage even).

We also had a post retweeted by prominent Conservative politician Louis Mensch, Protect your business from angry MPs.

What can we take from this?

In a quick list? Ok...

• If you're going to comment on a news story, add something to the conversation.
• If you have specialist knowledge of a particular area (e.g. development), exploit it.
• Commenting on controversial or contentious issues attracts clicks.
• If you have a funny idea, write a funny blog post (but don't try and force it).